


Your Words on My Skin

by AKAuthor



Series: Mine [5]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Happy Ending, Kinda Fluffy, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 14:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5166839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKAuthor/pseuds/AKAuthor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soulmate AU. The first words you hear your soulmate speak are printed on your skin. Rick falls in love and Daryl's nervous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Words on My Skin

**Author's Note:**

> This was another, earlier request from crazstiz. Okay, so, yes, here is somewhat of a happy ending and you can all expect another murderously sad one to come up in the short future... I'm feeling a death coming on...  
> Love hearing from you all!

Rick Grimes spent most of his life looking for his soulmate, just like everybody else. The first words he would hear his soulmate speak having been printed under his jawline since he was twelve gave him a clue.

It was more than a clue, it was an endgame. The moment someone spoke those words to him, Rick would forever be by their side, and they would forever be by his. And damn, if that didn’t excite him. Rick’s life had been filled from the beginning with comparisons of words, and speculations of other’s words.

Rick’s own parents had “ _Why would you do that_?” and “ _Because fuck you, that’s why_.” Respectively inked on their arms and ribs. This was always a source of amusement for the family, as nobody really had anything romantic-like, his cousin (who was a nurse) had “ _This man has a perforated colon_ ” wrapping his ankle, so literally no member of the family had the ability to take the mickey out of anyone else.

Rick’s words had burned when they came in, seared into the flesh under his jaw bone, “ _Son of a bitch! That’s my deer!”_

Now Rick had virtually no clue what situation he could find himself in that would lead to those poetic words being said, so he went about his day and curiously formulated daydreams of the time when he would hear those words.

 

Daryl was fifteen when his words came in. A strip of letters up his right bicep, they said “ _No easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it_.” To Daryl, the words sounded somewhat ominous and foreboding. What could possibly happen to lead his soulmate telling him that there was _no easy way to say this_?

He wasn’t excited about finding the person he would spend his life with, in fact, Daryl was quite nervous. Clearly something bad was associated with him finding his soulmate, and Daryl wasn’t sure he wanted to know. What if his soulmate was a doctor and found something wrong with Daryl?

Because thinking about meeting his soulmate makes him worried, Daryl did his best not to. He made it through many years of his life thinking as fleetingly as possible about love, and ignoring the words of those around him in case they told him that there ‘ _was no easy way to say this’_.

And then the world ended. Daryl was pretty sure he was safe from his soulmate then, with the world gone to shit and all.

He might be pleased that he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder and ignore the words of strangers around him in case he’s supposed to love them, but Daryl did occasionally miss his life before everything happened.

Eating Chinese and watching reruns of _Top Gear_.

Being a bartender.

Sitting at the table, drinking tea and reading some cop who got shot in the newspaper.

He missed the complex simplicity, because now all he’s got is simple simplicity and Merle. And between the two of those, Daryl tended to go hunting whenever he could.

 

The first thing Rick did once awake and left to his own devices by Morgan and Duane was shave. Rick disliked having his words covered by scruff, and was quick to remove it and have the slanted letters on display. It didn’t matter if the apocalypse happened while he was asleep, Rick was not giving up hope of finding his soulmate.

 

Rick was steadily becoming more and more used to the dead wandering around trying to chew on him. Putting down one that had come close to the quarry, he stood back to gather his breath while trying not to notice the putrid stench coming from the corpse. A rustling in the bushes had all weapons raised.

 

“ _Son of a bitch! That’s my deer_!”

 

Rick’s heart froze in his chest and a lump of ice seemed to have slid down his spine. His weapon was lowered and held in slack palms. A man stormed out of the brush, muttering and letting off a string of profanity, anger settled on his hunched shoulders. Spitting at Dale, this man, who Rick dazedly supposed was Merle’s brother, given the looks going around camp as they returned, acted like a cornered cat.

 

Daryl was defensive and offensive, lashing out wherever he could and hiding himself underneath the aggression well.

 

“Merle! Got us some squirrels! Gonna skin ‘em and stew ‘em!” He yelled, propping his crossbow on the ground and flexing his muscles as he did so. Rick stood back, entranced.

 

“Daryl,” Shane began, walking over. “Gotta talk to you about Merle. There was… an incident in Atlanta.”

 

“He dead?” Daryl asked, voice dropping and tinged with a wariness Rick had heard before. He longed to press the broad shouldered man to his chest in comfort.

 

“We don’t know,” Shane replied, playing leader. Daryl’s anger ramped up.

 

“Either he is or he ain’t,” he spat, whirling around to glare at Shane. Rick lowered his head, his heart rattling around in his chest.

“ _No easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it_ ,” Rick began, but Daryl had cast him a look of mixed terror and anger before disappearing down towards the quarry, no words on his brother said.

 

As dusk crept up on day, Rick gingerly made his way down to the quarry, heart frantically beating as he neared Daryl.

His soulmate.

He found the hunter sitting on the pebbled bank, flinging stones into the crystalline water, perhaps with less rage than expected. The man didn’t look as Rick sat down next to him.

“Hey,” Rick began, unsure of where he was going with the conversation that had yet to happen. Daryl grunted. “Look, I know this isn’t adequate-“

 

“You don’t know! My brother’s dead and you’re-“ Daryl broke off his sentence, clenching his jaw.

 

“Merle was a danger to everyone else. When we went to leave, we had the key to unlock the handcuffs but the key was dropped,” Rick quietly explained. Daryl shuffled, and lobbed another pebble into the water. Rick’s eyes followed the motion and locked onto the writing running down the other man’s bicep. The style was familiar and the words recently said.

 

“There wasn’t another way?” Daryl asked in a small voice.

 

“No. For us all to get out, Merle had to be subdued. And the key… that was an accident and regrettable,” Rick muttered. As Rick spoke, Daryl reached for his face, somewhat boldly, and traced his jawline where his words tucked under.

He turned Rick’s head, breath becoming baited as his own words from earlier were written just as the angle of Rick’s jaw became the sweep of his neck. He ran a finger over the raised letters. Rick wished it was his mouth instead of his hands on the words.

 

“What does this mean?” Daryl asked, having avoided thinking about his soulmate for so long, he had no idea what to expect. Rick smiled, his sombre and apprehensive expression shattering with Daryl’s words. He leaned in, nose just brushing Daryl’s, as the man tensed and fell into the blue of his eyes.

 

“It means I love you. Already. And I always will.”


End file.
